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Dear Parents, We have finally arrived at the end of our first term together. As I discussed with the PTA earlier this week, this is now the opportunity to have a complete rest with your families, no waking up and getting your children online, no worries about internet connection or technology, no multiple trips to school for the extracurricular learning.

Dear Parents, Today for Primary and next week for Secondary, you will receive this term’s reports for your children. As parents you eagerly await these to celebrate your child's success and also to support them in their stage of learning. Whether you are in your first term of school or about to take vital exams, we want to know that we are on the correct track. Academic outcomes are extremely important, and we do put an emphasis on these, but what I think is vital is the attitude to learning. Children with a positive attitude and growth mindset are going to do the best they can in the future. These features are reported in Secondary with a 1-4 scale and in Primary with their stage on the learner league. Please do celebrate these aspects with your children.

Whether you play the violin, drums or sing - if you're a musician, we would like to encourage you to select, prepare and enter a performance for the Nord Anglia Education Virtual Musician of the Year 2021 competition.

Studying the arts online can be challenging but our students have been engaging in lots of creative activities.

Dear Parents, Each year all Nord Anglia schools around the globe survey their parents to gain valuable feedback. As a new Principal this is a fantastic opportunity to gain your views in a completely anonymous way. For a school and community to work as well as we can together, we need valuable feedback. For example, we may think we are communicating effectively but that may not be your perception. If we don’t talk to each other honestly and openly, then we might be targeting our communications in the wrong way. This is just one very simple example, and I do hope that you have felt communication has improved since I started at the school. However, I am always open for things to improve.

On Monday 16th November, the World Bank (an international financial institution that aims for a world free from poverty), published a blog about the 2020 Atlas of SDGs. https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/2020-atlas-sustainable-development-goals-stories-and-insights-through-innovative-visuals

There is something remarkably special about international schools. I am not talking about the smart uniforms, the IB curriculum or the ever-present English language. They are special and unique places, micro worlds in themselves, because of the kaleidoscopic social fabric they are made of, their children!

Dear Parents, It has certainly been a challenging week with our first cases of COVID-19 amongst our community, as communicated to you all last weekend. These groups, individuals and classes have had separate communication as there is specific involvement and potential affect. This has also led to contact tracing and close contacts found who need to be quarantined for a period of time. I do hope that you have found our honest, open and clear communication informative and that it is serving to show how well prepared we are for any eventuality. We have to keep very fluid and adaptive as a school, some of the very skills we teach through our IB program and throughout the school. Just to reiterate if you do have any questions or concerns then please do ask us. Also, if you, or anyone at home, does test positive, could you please inform the school and then we can ensure that this group and close contacts are also quarantined.

I recently found myself in conversation with an alumni of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and they expressed a vehement dislike of the programme, to the extent that I was quite taken aback. Even more so when I informed them that I was in my current position of employment due to my belief and advocacy of the International Baccalaureate education model. I was amazed at the depth of animosity felt by my acquaintance. I decided to discuss with the IBDP students at BCB about their feelings toward the course. There was, as you would expect, a spectrum of responses; some wincing with pain in reflection of late nights working on Extended Essays; others joyfully recalling Theory of Knowledge lessons that blew open their understanding of reality; and admittedly one who felt at least a strong dislike for the programme. The reason I believe the IBDP can elicit such a strong reaction is because it asks more from the students than any other programme.

Dear Parents, I was reading the Secondary library newsletter and two things, quite related, caught my attention. The first was about the 10 happiest songs in the world and how these can give us an uplifting mood. The second was about the most watched video of all time on YouTube, again another piece of music or catchy tune.

This week, both online and, physically, in school, the Secondary School unpacked the issue of anxiety.

We are excited to announce the last part of our Living in Space MIT Challenge.

The blend of online learning and traditional brick-and-mortar instruction, hybrid, or "blended" schools, is a growing educational model.

Dear Parents, This has been a landmark week for us, having some students in full time for the first time this academic year, and we hope it is a clear indication for more changes in the near future. For many other year groups, we know it is still disappointing waiting for your opportunity to return but please forgive my celebration of this, I am certain we will all be together sooner rather than later now.

Teachers and children have been really happy to see each other again in our Extra Curricular mornings at BCB.

With more than 250 questions sent to Ariel Ekblaw about living in space on the first part of our MIT Challenge, we are happy to launch the second part of this challenge today. Students have a week to imagine and plan a device to be used in the International Space Station - ISS to improve human experience away from Earth in one of the following areas: Food / Sports & Exercises / Art.

Dear Parents, This week you will have received a notification about the potential return to school plans and if you have children across the different schools you will have received more than one letter. I wanted to just summarise the decisions for all the community. It is extremely positive news and the clearest indication yet that we are moving towards seeing everyone back in school in the near future.

It is no secret that physical activity and exercise are vital for the physical health and wellbeing of us all, especially children as they grow and develop rapidly, however at a time like this we should also be very aware of the emotional and psychological implications of a quarantine. Having to sit at a laptop for hours each day is clearly not an ideal environment for learning however we need to adapt and adjust to this, something I believe our students have been great at. To ensure our entire health and wellbeing, not just our physical bodies, is taken care of I would encourage everybody to participate in some sort of physical activity or exercise each day. This could be Yoga, Dancing, playing with a ball, going for a walk/run/swim (where possible) or anything else where you take yourself and, more importantly, your mind away from classwork/work and the stress and worries they may cause.

The Primary Music Department has presented on October 26th the Key Stage Two Virtual BCB’s Got Talent Show.

In the recent times the role of Information and Communication can be looked at as a great example for connecting people in all aspects. This year at BCB apart from independent academic subject, ICT is also viewed as a “major tool for building knowledge societies” and, particularly, as a mechanism at the school education level that could provide a way to rethink and redesign the educational systems and processes, thus leading to quality education for all.